CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — It is hard to build a case for North Carolina, the Forgotten, what with the seven national champion banners hanging in the rafters, the arena named after a legendary Hall of Famer and the court for another, and that Jordan guy. The Tar Heels are never going to get anyone’s pity, nor will they ask for it. They are among the programs for which the term “blue blood” was born, and if you ask them, the referenced blood is, in fact, a very specific shade of blue.

But this year has been an odd one, Tobacco Road running as a one-way street in the direction of Durham. Zion Williamson, he of the wide girth and broader game, has eclipsed the entire sun of college basketball, North Carolina included. If Duke wasn’t winning games, it was winning headlines, Williamson’s exploding sole turning into a Zapruder film rerun, a referendum on amateurism and, finally, a will he/won’t he cliffhanger soap opera that directors would envy. (And if, God forbid, he...